TGIF 3/6/20

If it's Friday, it's list-making day.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar is having a bad week, wouldn't you agree? Today at the White House, when the president was explaining why he wasn't going to the CDC as planned (because someone who works there might have the virus) Azar said "he's sending me instead" and Trump seemed pretty comfortable with the thought of sending Azar into a coronavirus threat, and then ignored him for the rest of his remarks.

And then, during the question time at the rescheduled CDC visit, Trump spoke of the many great experts including Mike Pence who is "working 24/7 on this" again ignoring Azar who was standing right next to him. I'm still thinking he's gonna be the fall guy, especially if those cruise ship peeps come off the boat.

Speaking of the president, he had a week. Just like he always does. From a great jobs report to not touching his face to bizarro comments at the CDC (and how all of that transpired), you'd think that was enough.

But no-o-o-o -- there's more. Because there's always more.

You'll recall I suggested not long ago - in fact, it was just last week - that Mulvaney was in trouble.

There's little about Barron in the media - by design. It's because the legitimate media know that president's kids are off limits, and because they know that the mere mention of the name Barron - nothing about the child himself, mind you, but simply using the homophones Barron and baron in a sentence - caused an uproar on the Trump News Network. Mulvaney better have his bags packed.

Little did I know that it would take so little time, and that he'd be going so far away. And I do have to laugh at the folks at The Hill, who earlier in February gave us this article, headlined

Oopsie. No word yet on who will run OMB, but I doubt even someone as fabulous as Mulvaney would have a hard time running the budget from another country.

Let's see who else is having a week? Chuck Schumer, for one.  He verbally attacked two Supremes this week, 

“I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions,

He said he misspoke , after being publicly whipped by Chief Justice John Roberts.

Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous. All Members of the Court will continue to do their job, without fear or favor, from whatever quarter.

This is not the first time Schumer has shot his mouth off, and it won't be the last. I understand that, to a certain point, but the problem is he's just not good at it.

Joe Biden, we know, had a good week. That Guy From Vermont did not. Elizabeth Warren did not, and that's frustrating. Mike Bloomberg did not, but he's going to keep spending money so that either Biden or TGFV has a good November (he hopes). Tom Steyer and Amy Klobuchar didn't. Pete Buttigieg had a good week, I think, because we have definitely not heard the last from him. Steve Bullock did too, as he's decided to run for US Senate in Montana.

Andrew Yang had a good week; he's announced the formation of Humanity Forward, a new nonprofit.

Humanity Forward, which will be based in New York, will focus first on a “data dividend” project and campaign that would fight on behalf of consumers who want the rights to their personal data, Mr. Yang said. 

Separately, he said Thursday that the group had received pledges of $3 million for pilot programs that would provide people with a universal basic income payment each month.

I could keep going, but this seems like a good place to stop.

TGIF, everyone.

Wondering on Wednesday (v195)

Ready... Set... Wonder!

Oh yes, it's that time again!  I wonder, right off the bat, what Chief Justice John Roberts is thinking with the questions he's getting from senators? After all, he's the one who reminded us - and them - that they were the world's greatest deliberative body... and today he's reading questions about hypothetical Obama examples of corruption, and about grabbing things, if you know what I mean. And he's a lawyer, too - so what must he think of the arguments being made the the lawyers on both sides of the aisle?  What a book he could write on this...

And speaking of books, there appears to be a move underfoot to allow Senators from both parties (at least, I assume it's from both parties) to slink off to a bunker and read the manuscript of John Bolton's book. Now, we all know that doing anything in secure room is anathema to baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet, at least if Democrats do it, but what the heck?  Are they afraid of what John Bolton will say to their faces, I wonder?  

Remember, whatever he said in the book is a lie, the president told us - and there's nothing better than putting a person on the stand and making them lie under oath, or to try and prove that they're not. Well, nothing better than that - except hiding in a secure bunker, out of sight from the press and from your constituents...

One of the most interesting things I heard today was actually from Adam Schiff, who noted that it's kind of odd that various outlets filing FOIA requests are able to get documents that the House was blocked from receiving. I wonder how that happens, and how it's defensible? And I wonder if, going forward, the House will resort to that tactic to get information they need, instead of going the subpoena route? 

I also wonder how arguing whether president Trump is a better president vis-a-vis Ukraine than President Obama was is relevant here? The issue is that Trump asked a foreign country to interfere in our election by investigating a political rival - not who gave more money... And not only that, but if this article is correct, the big whoop-de-do about the Javelin missiles is really kind of a moot point, because the Trump administration makes Ukraine store the missiles away from the Russian front.

But a U.S. condition of these sales was that the Javelins couldn’t actually be used in the fight with Russia and had to be stored away from the battlefield, which means they’ve effectively had only a symbolic deterrent effect. 

It has nothing to do with who had bigger hands, or who had bigger crowd, or who has bigger anything else - except that with the current president, size ALWAYS matters.

And I wonder why, at times, Schiff fails to keep is eye on the prize? He was given an absurd series of questions from Ted Cruz and others about the whistleblower's bias, which the Intelligence Community Inspector General identified: did he work for Biden, did he work for Biden on Ukraine issues, and so on. Schiff spent more of his time defending his staff and whistleblowers in general, instead of simply quoting the ICIG directly. 

Michael Atkinson, the inspector general, said his review of the whistleblower complaint "identified some incidia of bias, of an arguable political bias on the part of the complainant in favor of a rival political candidate... such evidence did not change my determination that the complaint relating to the urgent concern appears credible particularly given the other information the ICIG obtained during its preliminary review.

There will be lots of time to defend his staff, and his Committee's staff, and the witnesses, after this is all over. Heck, he can even give them pens if he wants. But it's not relevant to the question, or to the inquiry.  FOCUS, people.

And one last point of wonderment: why is so much of the president defense based on reports from the "enemy of the people" the lying failing, lying, biased, traitorous, lying, #fakenews media?  For someone who's spent years trying to get us to believe that EVERYTHING the media tells us is a lie, his lawyers sure are making a lot of references to what the lying liars have reported. I wonder who am I to believe? The lying president, his lying defense team, or the truthful media?  This is SO confusing.

TGIF 1/24/20

Gather around, boys and girls - it's time for this week's TGIF list.

For the good week side, I'm going to put California Rep. Adam Schiff - a man with whom I've had a few bones to pick over the past several months - right on top. By all accounts, even from people who don't agree with what he's saying, he's been doing a good job, an effective job, leading the House impeachment managers as they present their opening arguments to the Senate. Lawyers, judges, pundits, Republicans, goofballs on Twitter and blogs (like me!) tend to agree with how he's handling the task.

Now, that doesn't mean that he hasn't made some goofs, or that his team hasn't made some goofs, or that they haven't talked too much - but it is a rare treat for me to say I approve of Schiff.  Jerry Nadler? Yeah, not so much. I think he's mostly been pissing people off, including Maine's Senator Susan Collins, who says she was the one who had a note sent to Chief Justice John Roberts, the presiding officer, to have him admonish "people on both sides" for their behavior. (Not sure if it was "fine people on both sides" or if it was just politicians...)

Of the other impeachment managers I've heard, I think Rep. Zoe Lofgren has also been doing a good job, better than Rep. Sylvia Garcia, the other one I've heard the most. And yes, that means that like many Senators, I haven't been sitting at my desk paying attention, reading books, playing with my Trump fidget spinner, or swigging milk or water. But, I'm not under oath nor do I have to abide by any rules saying I have to be there - so a big "welcome to the bad week list" to all of the Senators who have skipped out, with a particular hi-dee-ho to Tennessee's Marsha Blackburn, who was live on Fox when she was supposed to have been in the chamber paying attention. And a similar hi-dee-ho to whoever's been taking attendance and not reporting all of these folks to the time-out room.

The president was having a week, flying off to Davos to talk about how great things are, and saying that he's never met Lev Parnas except for maybe some photos, until today when a tape was leaked of Trump talking to Parnas about Masha Yovanovitch, saying "take her out" - like a boss, as they say on the car commercial. Mike Pence thinks the tape is real, so that should be good enough for Trump to stop lying about Parnas. Or, maybe not.

Speaking of Mike Pence, I seem to recall he was a huge supporter of Space Force?  And today, we got to see the new Space Force logo, chosen, we're told, by some important people. But first, let's refresh ourselves on the original draft logos, which were deemed "no good" by professional designers.

And here, is the winner, as announced by the president today. 

To which George Takei - Sulu on Star Trek - said, "Ahem. We are expecting some royalties from this..."

Fun stuff to end this long week.

TGIF, everyone.